April 6, 2023 at 3:49 p.m.
The Lake Where You Live
What guides your mission?
By Ted Rulseh-
After spelling out the what and why of their existence, some organizations also lay out the how, by way of a set of guiding principles. Where that is concerned it is hard to top the Black Lake Preservation Society in Michigan.
Black Lake, encompassing about 10,100 acres, lies in the northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula in both Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties. The society's mission is to protect and preserve the ecology of the lake, its tributaries and its watershed. Here is a look at the group's three guiding principles.
1. The right time to preserve and protect a lake is when it is healthy, because there are few practical ways to restore a lake once it is impaired.
This is a variation on the age-old theme that an ounce of prevention is worth a pond of cure. Once a noxious invasive species infests a lake, it is almost impossible to remove. And if a lake becomes infused with an excess of phosphorus that feeds harmful algal blooms, attempts at remediation are likely to be futile.
2. When developing protective solutions, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Solutions already developed elsewhere can be leveraged toward the lake's needs, and it is critical to find them and reuse them; all effort must be additive.
Most lake groups struggle to raise the money and people resources they need. Finding and replicating efforts that have been successful on other lakes can enable problems to be solved efficiently. In fact, it's possible for a success on one lake or chain to be replicated across a state or region - witness the Lake Steward recognition program that started on Minnesota's Gull Chain of Lakes and is being adopted by associations statewide.
3. Property owners can't outsource their responsibility for a lake by simply writing a check to a group like a lake association. People need to care enough to listen, learn, and engage if goals are to be met.
This might be the most important principle of all. On most lakes, some people don't even go so far as to write the check for membership dues. Rare is the lake association that can boast 90 to 100% of property owners as members. Many struggle to exceed 75 or even 50%.
For anyone who lives on a lake, there is no valid excuse for failure to join the association and to become active toward the group's mission. Too often, a few dedicated people end up doing all the work and bearing all the expense. The inevitable result is ineffectiveness and, in the long run, burnout of that active minority.
Perhaps a set of guiding principles such as those of the Black Oak Preservation Society belong on the website of every lake association, and on the home bulletin boards of every association member.
Ted Rulseh resides on Birch Lake in Harshaw and is an advocate for lake protection and improvement. His Lakeland Times and Northwoods River News columns are the basis for a book, "A Lakeside Companion," published by The University of Wisconsin Press. Ted may be reached at [email protected].
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